Orpheus
by dashinvaine
Summary: A ballad on doomed, yet undying love.


ORPHEUS

1.

I blessed the gods that gave you breath,

Eurydice, fair as the moon;

I cursed the fate that caused your death

And stole you from my arms so soon.

I could not sing as much as cry

It could not be that you were gone;

It could not be that you could die

When in my soul such love lived on!

I sang of grief to gods and men

I sang and wept above your grave

Then I wondered Earth grief-blinded

To Taenarus, where I found the cave;

A dark cleft in a wall of rock

Above the pounding waves,

That leads to where the spirits dwell

That found no rest within their graves.

The world beyond tore you away

To dwell among the dead

Outside, alone, I could not stay

That was a deeper dread.

My sin was loving from the heart

And loving without end,

When death our oneness pulled apart

I knew I must descend

Down to what lies beyond the tomb,

That place of bleak, stygian gloom;

The sunless, skyless, cheerless clime

That claimed my love before her time.

2.

The passages tortuous wound

More deep, more dark, below the ground

And grief hung heavy in the air

To crush intruders with despair.

To make my darker feelings fade

I took my lyre and music played

I sang of memories of life

And kept in mind my dear lost wife!

A thing of nightmare blocked my way

A vast and monstrous hound

Three headed, with a mane of snakes

That writhed and snapped around.

I knew this beast as Cerberus

The devil dog, the sentinel

The thing of myth, with breath of fire,

That stands to guard the gates of Hell.

It was soon after our wedding

That a serpent bit my bride

While she fled from Aristaeus

And before the night she died.

Now I saw the mane of Cerberus

And heard the serpents hiss,

And recalled their earthly brother

Who had killed her with his kiss.

I also heard what last she said

Before I lost her to the dead

That such a love as hers and mine

Mere death could not make us resign!

Ah, with so much pain within me

It was agony to play,

And I feared I must be slaughtered

By this thing that barred my way…

Yet my playing was beguiling

And it soothed the savage beast

Soon the three heads ceased their growling

And the snakes no longer hissed;

Thus I passed the dreadful guardian

And I climbed over his chain

And I passed beyond the threshold

Into Pluto's dark domain.

3.

The brittle bones crunched where I trod

And skulls lay stacked against the walls

And pillars disappeared above

Supporting these infernal halls.

The ossuary halls seemed endless,

But in time the last gave way

To a never-ending cavern

Where a buried city lay

And the walls of homes and temples

Rose in ruins, cracked and dry

And from each forsaken denizen

Rose one lamenting sigh.

And I knew this to be Hades

Which confines the wretched shades

Of the dead who failed to make it

To the blessed Elysian glades.

The scent of life-blood drew them,

From the shadows, from the lanes

Ghastly ghosts, half mad with hunger

For the substance in my veins.

Oh how could I think of Eurydice

Becoming such as this,

As forsaken and as ravaged

As the ghosts of the abyss?

So fresh and soft and bright in life

All that my anguished soul adored,

I dared not seek my cherished wife

Amid this grim and ghastly horde.

And the pale ones shuffled closer

And they stared with deathly eyes,

And their wizened hands reached for me

And I heard their groans and cries…

In each face I saw the torment

Of the damned who languish here

Yet my music seemed to soothe

Their maddened minds as they drew near.

4.

And so I passed between them,

To a great, imposing hall

Both more glorious and more grotesque

Than aught that I'd seen before

On a throne above a dais

Sombre Pluto did preside

With Persephone death-tainted

Yet bewitching at his side.

This was not a court where poets

Or minstrels would entertain;

In their place were the accursed-

The souls who toiled in endless pain.

The fair daughters of Danaus

To punish some forgotten crime

Here were made to fill a leaking bowl

With water for the rest of time.

A fallen prince named Tantalus

Bore yet a crueller curse

He stood to his neck in water

Yet could never sate his thirst.

And elsewhere the wretched Sisyphus

A rock up great slopes bore

And ere he reached the top he had

To recommence once more!

And a host of demons kept

These wretched inmates at their labour

A hopeless place indeed to come

To beg a god for favour!

5.

The underworld's dark ruler's wrath

Burned darkly in his deadly stare

'Who's this- that trod the outlawed path

To desecrate my hallowed lair?'

Persephone, though, met his eyes

And said, 'Lord I've grown sick of sighs

This poet has come such a way

How would it harm to hear his lay?'

I thus started slowly playing,

Though my soul and limbs felt lame

I felt too weary for laying

So I sang the words that came…

…

I sang of love and like a spell

It seemed to touch the heart of hell:

For Tantalus forgot his thirst,

While the Danaides, who were cursed

To endlessly fill the bowl that drains

Were given respite from their pains,

And Sisyphus his rock down laid

To listen to me as I played,

And those harsh fiends that oversaw

Forgot their duties, lost in awe.

I sang about my journey-

My path guided by Eros,

How I sought what death had taken-

How I could not bear the loss.

I sang of sweet Eurydice

Of our marriage marked by doom

And of a love that disregards

The very boundaries of the tomb.

It rules the hearts of men above

All know it to be so

Could it be that the power of love

Was weaker here below?

I desired to learn no secrets

I desired to gain no fame

Eurydice who died too soon

For her alone I came.

To unite again, I begged them,

The thread of her severed life-

And to let me leave this realm

Once more united with my wife.

Well I knew that, ultimately,

All that live must finish here;

But my darling had not years enough

For one who was so dear.

I begged the god to let her live

And come with me away

Or, if not, at least to give me death,

And let me with her stay.

I could not go on alone, and

My song ended with this oath: 

That she must rejoin the living

Or that death must have us both!

6.

King Pluto's Queen, herself his slave

Pitied the girl I sought to save

And beseeched her lord, teary eyed,

To let me take away my bride.

But grave Pluto showed no sign

Of anypity for our plight,

And I feared that he designed

To keep my love his slave by right.

In time, though he seemed to relent

And guards to fetch the girl he sent;

Ere they returned he said to me

'We shall set Eurydice free...

But one condition I impose

If I am to release your rose:

That ere you reach the other place

You must not look back at her face,

Keep silent, andglance not behind

Or once more she'll be here consigned

My darkness will her radiance swallow

And take her where you cannot follow!'

I heard the footsteps from afar

As Pluto's guards returned

And as the door opened ajar

My back to it I turned.

Towards me soon came other steps

So light so soft upon the ground,

My thumping heart within me leapt

For well I knew their silent sound-

The tread of my love's dainty feet,

What's more I caught her scent so sweet,

Such joy, oh I could hardly stand

I reached back, and she took my hand!

I was seized at once with longing

To just gaze upon my love,

But I knew it would be fatal

Ere we reached the world above.

So without a backward glance

I started out for our home land

And my darling walked behind me,

Holding firmly to my hand…

We traversed the maze of passages

That wound towards the cave

Filled with cobweb covered bones

And all the darkness of the grave.

It was not the end of shadows,

It was not the end of fear

But the air was tasting fresher

And the end was growing near...

Somehow I maintained my bargain

And kept Pluto's words in mind

As I led my beauty homeward

I gave not a glance behind.

But to feel her hand so slender

And to know her lips so near

Was to let my soul surrender

To a glowing rush of cheer.

Up ahead the sky was shining

And the purple mountains shimmered

While the golden sun was rising

Over silver waves that glimmered.

Then I saw the gaping cave mouth

And I smelled the salty sea

And I knew we'd almost made it

And I knew we'd soon be free!

And I heard the skylarks singing

And the fire within me burned

And I wanted so to face her-

And embrace her- and I turned.

7.

Hermes fast appeared and held me

Frozen, helpless in a spell-

While a hungry, heaving darkness

Pulled my dear one back to Hell!

Both her arms she reached towards me,

Still I hear her plaintive cries-

And I'm haunted by the look

Of desolation in her eyes.

In a moment it was over

My appeals were all in vain

For a second time I lost her

Doubled- boundless- is the pain.

To lose again a love so pure

A love so sweet, so rare,

Is more than mortal can endure

And more than soul can bear.

There is such a wound within me…

But some day it will be healed

When I walk again with Eurydice

In some Elysian field.


End file.
